Researcher: Amer. Colleges Wisely Seeking Out Home-Schooled Students
by Jim Brown
December 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - Yet more data indicates home-schooled children perform academically as well as and typically better than those from conventional schools.The Des Moines Register reports that the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have both seen an increase in the number of home schoolers applying to college; and those students are posting higher grade point averages than their peers from traditional schools. Dr. Brian Ray with the Oregon-based National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) says the finding is common in research conducted by many people, including himself.
"Home schooling customizes the education of every single child," he says. "You can focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the child [and on] his particular interests and dreams. And secondly, they can go at their own pace, which means they can master the information and skills and then move on, rather than waiting for a group of 25 or being pressured to do something before they're ready for it."
And Ray says he is not surprised at the reports coming out of Iowa. He notes that universities are starting to more actively recruit home-educated students because, on average, they are high success and low risk.
"There's a lot of self initiative kinds of work going on [among home schoolers]," he explains. "Oftentimes, by the time Billy is 13 years of age, he's doing a lot on his own because mom or dad is busy teaching the younger ones how to read."
The researcher adds there is another reason why home schoolers perform well academically: full use of the available time. "In conventional classroom schools, there's a lot of wasted time or downtime," he says. "Research shows that only about one-third of time in a classroom school is what researchers call 'academic engaged time.'"
Ray says home schoolers are free to do their own critical thinking because they are free of the constant barrage of a particular worldview that comes up in government-run schools. In addition, the NHERI spokesman notes that in home education, many variables are in place that certified teachers in institutional schools dream of having but can never have because of the way the system of classroom schooling works.
